Throughout the course of this world literature course, several stories have been covered that accurately describe Joseph Campbell's mono-myth, or basic pattern found in narratives from every corner of the world. The Hero's Journey in its entirety has seventeen phases or steps, but when reduced can be described in three; the departure, the initiation and the return (Monomyth Cycle). Each phase has several steps, but the cycle describes the hero starting in his initial state, encountering something that changes him, and this his return as a changed person. To further explain this concept, there are some stories covered in this course that can be used. Beowulf is an epic poem that tells the story of Beowulf, a legendary Geatish hero who later becomes king in the above-mentioned epic poem. While the story in and of itself is quite interesting, for the purposes of this article it is important to look at the character more than his actions, or rather why he did what he did. In the story, Beowulf travels to Heorot to help King Hrothgar with a problem involving a monster called "Grendel". This is the first step of Mr. Campbell's guidelines for a hero; the “call to adventure” (Monomyth website). There is a conflict (Grendel, the monster, and the murder he is carrying out) and Beowulf is answering that call to solve this problem. Mr Campbell describes it as "the first phase of the mythological journey - which we called the call to adventure - means that fate has summoned the hero..." (Monomyth website). It is important to note that this is a voluntary action, that "the hero can move forward of his own free will to complete the adventure..." (Monomyth website), however, at this point Beowulf begins to deviate from the traditional mono- ...... half of the paper ......d%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_195944_1%26url%3d>.Hughes, MeLinda. Epic/hero handout. Navarro College handouts. Network. 05 March 2011.course_id=_195944_1&content_id=_633317_1 >."The cycle of the monomyth."Welcome to WIU - Western Illinois University. Network. 01 April 2011.."Monomyth website, ORIAS, UC Berkeley." ORIAS home page. Network. March 28, 2011.."Solving the 'double curse' of the pagan treasure in Beowulf." Explicator, Spring 2008, Vol. 66 Issue 3, p174-177. Navarro College Academic Research Completed, Web. March 23, 2011. The Thirteenth Warrior. John McTiernan directed. Perf. Antonio Banderas, Diane Venora, Vladmir Kulich.British Columbia, 1999. DVD.